Festival of Strings 2017 Five Consecutive days of Concerts and Master Classes with Internationally Recognized Artists and our own SHSU faculty Dylana Jenson (violin), The Solera String Quartet with Josu de Solaun (piano), The Kolonneh String Quartet (SHSU faculty) • Thursday, October 5, Concert Hall, 2:30-5:00 pm Master class with Dylana Jenson • Friday, October 6, Recital Hall 1:00-3:00 pm Master class with Dylana Jenson • Friday, October 6, Concert Hall, 7:30 pm SHSU Symphony Orchestra Concert with guest soloist Daniel Saenz (cello) VENUE CHANGE! • Saturday, October 7, Recital Hall, 7:30 pm University Heights Baptist Church Guest Artist Recital 2400 Sycamore Ave, Huntsville, TX 77340 Dylana Jenson, (violin) with Josu de Solaun (piano) •Sunday, October 8, Recital Hall, 3:30 pm Guest Artist Recital The Solera String Quartet with Josu de Solaun (piano) • Monday, October 9, Recital Hall, 7:30 pm The Kolonneh String Quartet www.shsu.edu/music/events Sam Houston State University Festival of Strings 2017 Guest Artists DYLANA JENSON Dylana Jenson has performed with most major orchestras in the United States and traveled to Europe, Australia, Japan and Latin America for concerts, recitals and recordings. After her triumphant success at the Tchaikovsky Competi- tion, where she became the youngest and first American woman to win the Silver Medal, she made her Carnegie Hall debut playing the Sibelius Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Following her most recent Carnegie Hall performance, Jenson again electrified both audience and critics in her per- formance of Karl Goldmark's violin concerto. According to Strad Magazine, "In Jenson's hands, even lyrical passages had an intense, tremulous quality... a sizzling performance." Harris Goldsmith of the New York Concert Review said, "I can give no higher praise than to say that her excellent performance brought to mind, and was a loving tribute to, the great Nathan Milstein... who was one of Jenson's mentors." Ms. Jenson was made an Honorary Citizen of Costa Rica for her artistic contribution to her mother's homeland. Dyla- na Jenson comes from a family with a strong tradition in the arts. Her sister, Vicky Jenson, directed the films 'Shrek' and 'Shark Tale'. Her brother Ivan is a painter and poet. Her daughter, Mariama Lockington, is a Hopwood award winning poet. In tandem with her solo career Jenson has been busy giving Master Classes and teaching at summer music festivals. In her teaching she uses the Russian technique taught by Leopold Auer and championed by great artists such as Na- than Milstein, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern and Jasha Heifetz. This method develops a natural physical relationship to the instrument. Dylana Jenson started the violin at the age of two and a half with her mother. She then studied with Manual Com- pinsky, Nathan Milstein and Josef Gingold. [email protected] THE SOLERA STRING QUARTET Described as “top-notch, intense, stylish, and with an abundance of flare and talent,” the New York City-based Solera Quartet is the Quartet in Residence at the University of Notre Dame. Members Tricia Park and Miki- Sophia Cloud, violins; Molly Carr, viola; and Andrew Janss, cello, have been featured in such world-renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, the Royal Festival Hall in London, Orchard Hall in Tokyo, The Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. They have also participated in prestigious festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Mu- sic@Menlo, Perlman Music Program, La Jolla Summerfest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Music from Angelfire. Noteworthy accomplishments by members of the quartet include an Avery Fisher Career grant, a Gram- my Award nomination, top prizes at international competitions, and a CMS2 artist roster appointment at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Members are graduates of the Juilliard School, Harvard College, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan and the Yale Schools of Music. The quartet's exciting 2016-2017 season included its first West Coast tour, residencies at the University of Notre Dame and New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, and appearances on the Brooklyn Public Library and Pasadena Conservatory Chamber Music Series and recent summer engagements have included performances at the Virginia Arts Festival, the White Mountains Chamber Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program. All four members of the Solera Quartet are artist-entrepreneurs in their own right, leading and curating festivals, series, and ensembles such as: ñ the Grammy-nominated self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry ñ MusicIC, a festival combining music and literature presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature ñ Project: Music Heals Us, a Connecticut-based non-profit organization which provides interactive classical music performances to diverse audiences by artists of the highest caliber. Under the umbrella of PMHU, the quartet has founded a Prison Outreach Residency that has brought concerts into a dozen Federal and State Pris- ons across the United States. Over the next season, the Solera Quartet will release its first studio album working with Grammy-winning produc- er Jesse Lewis, exploring the concept of obsession across three centuries of music. This will be shortly followed by a two-album project recording the piano and string chamber music of George Enescu with Enescu Competition Grand Prize Winner Josu de Solaun, released on the Naxos label. As part of these album releases, the quartet will be making its highly-anticipated European debut with concerts planned in Spain and Romania. The word solera describes a craft method of producing wine and spirits, in which new and old vintages are perpet- ually layered in one barrel to achieve a uniquely complex and ever-evolving blend. Similarly, the Solera Quartet is founded on a deep respect for the rich string quartet tradition alongside an intrepid desire to add new layers to that tradition through developing fresh interpretations, cultivating collaboration across disciplines, and commissioning contemporary repertoire. .